Use her Book to Create a Course

Cindy

Hello and welcome to the Business Book Bistro where you’ll learn from other fellow authors and business owners what’s working for them to leverage their books for sales and profit. You’re bound to discover new ways you might do more with your book too.

I’m your host, Cindy Carothers also known as the Beyond Book Sales Coach, and today I am extremely pleased to welcome LeDondra Harvey. I’m going to read her bio because it’s really good and I don’t want to miss anything.

LaDondra is an award winning author, keynote speaker, certified belief therapist and certified soul alignment business coach. She knows firsthand what it means to break through limiting beliefs and circumstantial events to become powerful beyond belief, as she is a first generation college graduate, author and licensed professional with multiple certifications, and the first to break her family cycle of drug abuse, alcoholism and prison recidivism.

LaDondra empowers women to create ritually rewarding businesses rooted in Jesus Christ by helping them overcome the barriers that keep them disconnected from their true calling.

So today I’m, as I said, extremely thrilled to be welcoming LaDondra.

Hi, welcome to the Business Book Bistro.

LaDondra
Hey Cindy thank you so much for having me on. I’m excited to be here and to be a part of what you’re doing with the Business Bistro with all you’re doing with the authors.

Cindy
Good. Well, let’s get started. Why don’t you tell us why you wrote your book?

LaDondra
Well, as it was mentioned kind of in my introduction it’s because as you noticed I came from a background where there was issues there. And so part of the reason why I wrote the book is because, I would think like during those times where I would see like my family members who are like, absolutely my heroes, they are hands down my heroes, regardless of what their past is. But they went through some different challenges whether they were addicted to drugs or they were addicted to alcoholism or whatever the case was. I used to think to myself “who would they be? Like how a powerful person they would be if they didn’t have all of this stuff plaguing them or attached to their identities and all the things?”

And so I had made commitment in my life that I was going to break the generational cycle.

But as I started on my own path, in y own path I attracted to realize there was a lot of – I was trying to conform to fit because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do.

And then I realized, I quickly realized that, that’s not what God has called me to do. And so as the subtitle of this book it mentions it says “it’s time to release, who you think you should be to become the entrepreneur that you are called to be”.

And so that was that was really the reason why I wrote I wrote it, so that we can uncover the lies that keep us playing small and keep us from playing under our power and potential that God has intended for us, so that we can rise up and become that entrepreneur that God has created us to be.

Cindy
That’s right, that’s very exciting and something that we all keep growing towards.

So you’re using your book – you built a course around it. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about that – how you created it, how you’re using it, how you’re using your book and making hopefully some money from it.

LaDondra
Yes, so when I first wrote the book…I want to kind of back up just a little bit to answer this question. When I first started on the journey of writing the book like it wasn’t even my plan to write a book. Like I -was God…I’m not gonna write a book and so when like I was thinking that God – I don’t have time for this – He slowed me down to do that. And so I really didn’t have a strategy for it at first, but then as I went along that process to begin writing my book, what I found is that there was a mission and a movement that I wanted to complete through the writing of this book, and I didn’t want that the writing of it to be the end, to be the period. I wanted to be able to use the book as a tool in multiple ways. And in a way where it would really touch people’s lives. And so the book has the “What (to do)” in it – I was like, okay, so I’ll share all the work that I could – the mindset, the strategies – but now I want to want to help others to walk this out with the “How”.

And so that’s where the course came about in my mind. I wanted to teach people how to think about the things that I’ve written, how to walk those things out. And so that’s where the whole course thing came from. And so I approached it from a place of like, “Okay, what am I really trying to get people to accomplish at the end of this?” because I think that anything that we do we need to start with the end in mind.

So the writing of the book, it had its own end in mind. But now when we come to a course creation, what is the end that I wanted, what was that take away, what was the journey that I wanted them to take when they went through my course? And so, I first started it out and I launched it as a beta, and what a beta means is I tested it. I tested it out with just a few people; small group of people. And when you do something beta then that’s something where you charge a lower fee for people to invest in themselves to be a part of it. And so I did that.

And within that, what I did is I didn’t even have the whole course written down. What I did is I just, I trusted what I had, because the book is already written. I just needed to put legs on what was written to help people to walk it out. And so, I broke those chapters down into a six week course. And with that within that six week course then I included different templates and different checklists and all the things to help them like I say, to walk it out because I’m about action.

I’m a results girl. I don’t want you to just hear something; I want you to be able to be able to do something with what you heard, and so that was the whole purpose of that piece of it.

But then I also included with my course – community. And so when the women went through that course in that beta launch, what we did is I created a closed Facebook group. And so every week, what we would do is we would walk through what was some of the things – like what was some of the mindsets, what were some of the things that you got hung up on, and we encouraged each other along the way. They would post their action items, their assignments, all the things there, so they could hold themselves accountable. Because a lot of times we give ourselves, we let ourselves off the hook and we won’t be accountable to the things that matter to us the most.

And so when we’re in community we can do great things. And so that’s kind of how I went about thinking; thinking about the course and approaching everything with the course –  that was my mindset – how can I create this into a movement where people’s lives will be changed from the inside out.\

Cindy
You didn’t – um – did you have a business beforehand?

LaDondra
Yeah.

Cindy
What were you doing then?

LaDondra
So, and I still do it. I am a soul alignment business coach, and right now like I have a membership community where I help women entrepreneurs go from purpose to profit and beyond into legacy impact.

So the work that I wrote in the book, it’s kind of a reflection of those stories that I’ve encountered with the women that I have coached over the years in overcoming those limiting beliefs that prevent them from stepping powerfully into their business. And so the book is a reflection of some of those stories and some of the experiences that I’ve had to walk through.

Cindy
I find it interesting that you didn’t decide up front “well, I want to do a course. Let me write a book”. It was more a calling to write the book, and even though you were doing the work, would you would you say that the book is more your personal journey or is it more a compilation of what you’ve learned from other people or both? Tell me, talk about that a little bit.

LaDondra
So the book is a compilation of my own journey and the women that I have coached. And what I have found is that because we all share similarities in our story. Our stories are different like in the journey that we walk, but there’s some things that along that journey like mindset triggers, there are some things that get us hung up, that prevent us from moving forward. There’s some things where, you know, we kind of get hung up on being seen, being heard, being validated, being acknowledged, being great.

And so when I as I walked my own journey and I had to uncover those layers for myself, then I found out, I figured out, like, oh okay so when I do this, then I can expect this result. When I’m just being authentically me, I can expect this result. And the same thing has happened with my clients. When they have walked through the journey of becoming who they really were created to be, becoming the person beyond the lies, beyond the expectations of the world, beyond all the projections that we can we can imagine, when they release all of that, what’s on the other side of that, how great are you; what kind of business could you create?

And so as we walk through that and I’ve coached those ladies, and myself, then this is how that book was birthed, and so it’s a compilation of those stories. And I’m a believer, and so, it’s also that it was Holy Spirit inspired for me as well. So I can’t take all the credit.

Cindy
None of the credit actually, it belongs belong somewhere else but that’s a little bit outside of the scope today right now.

Let me ask – do you use your book at all in marketing your business? Do you give it away? Do you speak and sell it? What do you do with the book itself?

I know you built a course out of it and that’s a really key profit or revenue stream, if you will.

But what else are you using your book for? Anything?

LaDondra
Yes. So, I’ll back up to when I first wrote it.

When I first wrote it because I felt like there was a lot of key things in there and especially for when you are a new author, if you can really kind of set the foundation for some certain things, it’ll help to prepare you into other things into the future. And so when I first wrote the book, our coach at the time said “Set your intention. What do you want this book to do? Like do you want it to be on the best sellers list?” Whatever the case was.

In my mind, I wasn’t really concerned about the best sellers list. If it made it to the best sellers list, great. If it didn’t, that’s fine with me. What I was really concerned about is the impact that I could use it for to touch other people’s lives. And so, with that being said, I said, Okay, so, how do I need to approach my marketing to hit that – my intention that I have for it. And so what I did is I actually launched it at one of my business retreats that I hosted. I don’t do it now, but especially since the corona stuff. But I used to host annually.

And, like, after we did our three day weekend retreat, on that final day, I did a live launch on Facebook and all the socials, and I had kind of a presentation of what I wanted it to -just the presentation of why I wrote the book. And then what happened from there is it started to open up doors for other speaking opportunities and it started opening up doors for like podcasting and then before I knew it, like, at that moment somebody was reaching out to me from the Christian literary awards and was like hey would you like to put your book in to be a contender?

And so I’m like, absolutely. And so that was another way of using your book as marketing because then at that point, I didn’t even know that. I didn’t know all the things about that but what I did know is that it was that it seemed like a great opportunity that was in alignment with what I was doing and the movement that I was trying to create. And so, what ended up happening from that moment is then I later won the award. And so when you can have some accolades behind that book, then that too helps you in marketing and building up credibility, so you can be on guest podcasts for even higher caliber type of podcasts opportunities that will in turn help you to grow your list.

The last thing I’ll say on this Cindy is in the book, there’s ways where and we’ll provide people with the opportunity for to grab it, but in the book, there were places where you’d be able to get the free videos that I have to help women entrepreneurs to walk the things out.

And so that’s another opportunity to use it for marketing so when we’re doing interviews like today, then you can suggest that, and it’s coming directly from the resource that you initially created.

Cindy
We’re going to get to your free gift in just a minute, but before that I always ask people to share something that was unexpected that happened in the course of using their book.

You mentioned two. One was the award and one was the podcast. Would you say those were like the most unexpected things that happened or is there something else?

LaDondra (Shakes head.)

Cindy
Okay, so we’ll go with that. Being that the award wasn’t even in your vision at all; it wasn’t on the horizon. It just sort of like ‘popped up’ and somebody said, do it and you said, Okay, and lo and behold, you won! And you mentioned earlier it’s on the shelf behind you, we can’t quite see it. But maybe we’ll take a picture of it and put it in with the rest of the Facebook post so people can take a look at it.

But congratulations on that; that’s really very exciting.

So you mentioned that you had a free gift and I’m going to pop the link in there into the chat here. But while I do that why don’t you tell people about what the offer is?

LaDondra
Okay. So as I had mentioned while we’re going through this interview that this is, this is your opportunity to help you to release who you think you need to be to become the entrepreneur that you were called to be and so with the book that I have included some exclusive bonuses – bonus interviews from some amazing women who are standing in their own gifts and in their own talents unapologetically.

And so with these interviews – it’s like 5 different interviews in there and so if there’s things that you’re trying to do to overcome – release old identities, there’s an interview for that. How to stand in your purpose, how to overcome the lies you believe, how to embrace love and acceptance, shining in the light of your gifts. All of those types of things that we kind of struggle with from time to time, you will have access to those videos to get the encouragement, to get some practical tips to help you walk things out.

Cindy
Okay, well Facebook’s telling me there’s an error in posting it on Facebook, but at least we can see it right here, and you can grab LaDondra’s gifts which are bonus interviews at LaDondra Hervey that’s how she sells her name L-A-D-O-N-D-R-A H-E-R-V-E-Y dot com forward slash book.

And I would encourage anybody and everybody who is listening to go ahead and get that because I’m really excited about taking a look at them myself I think everybody else will be too.

We’re coming down towards the ending here.

Is there any final piece of advice for people that you might have who are looking to perhaps use a book for business or they they’ve written a book and now they’re thinking about making a course out of it, or if they’re planning of course and then they’re going to write their book- do you have any ways for them to get started or a final piece of advice for them?

LaDondra
I would say I have a couple pieces of advice.

The first thing is, start before you’re ready. And what I mean when I say that is don’t try to expect these big things out of yourself when you haven’t even given yourself the opportunity to begin it. And a lot of times we stop ourselves before we can even begin because we’re trying to over -perfect what we feel like things should be. But what I will tell you is as you start to write that book, sentence by sentence, page by page, chapter by chapter, you realize that you are more capable, more powerful, more equipped, more all the things that you could have ever even imagined. So just get started and allow the process to propel you into the result that was already in you. Like this, most of the things that you are being called to write, it’s already in you but you have to give it the permission to be released into the world, in your authentic way. Don’t try to write your book according to how you see other people doing it. Do it authentically, according to the assignment that you feel is on your life and what you can bring the most value to other people’s lives.

And then the second thing I’d say is that, once you write it, don’t be afraid to get it out into the world. You wrote this for a reason, you wrote this for a mission, you wrote this to make an impact, regardless if you’re a fiction, nonfiction, whatever the case is, you had an intention behind that. Stay true to that intention. Be seen, be heard, because it’s not about you.

It’s about the life that your book was created to touch. So give yourself that unapologetic permission to stand out and be great and show the world, who you are and what you have created. Because it does make a massive impact.

Cindy
Thank you LaDondra. You are incredibly inspiring. And I’m so thrilled to have you here today.

I want to thank everyone who’s watching, whether it’s live, and you’re with us today, or whether it’s on replay. And again, thank you very much LaDondra for, for being here, for sharing, so so so so much with us.

I want to remind everyone that we are here every Friday at noon, at the Business Book Bistro.

If you’re interested in being a guest – if you’ve written a book, you’re a business person and you’ve written a book, please DM me. I would love to have you as a guest. Also let your friends – other authors or business people that you know, let them know about us. We are The Business Book Bistro, where you learn from other authors what’s working right now to market and sell more books, you’ll discover opportunities to market and monetize and spread a message and build a movement, just so many good things to help you do more with your book.

I’m your host Cindy Carothers signing off now. Wishing you all ever increasing success in all you do. Thank you viewers. Thank you, LaDondra. Everybody – . Have a good weekend.

Take care.

Bye!